By Michael Lewis

FrontRowSoccer.com Editor

If you think you are seeing double when Flower City 1872 plays, you’re not.

That’s twins Maya and Taylor Rutland running around on the field, who keep trying to make life difficult for the opposition.

They’re twins, talented soccer players who have a history of attacking the goal. The Kendall, N.Y. residents might look alike, but bring different skillsets to the table, or in this case, to the pitch.

Taylor is an attacking midfielder, a creator. On many occasions in her career, she has set up Maya, a forward, for goals. Maya, incidentally, is older than Taylor by a minute, if you were wondering.

Because they have trained and played together since being introduced to the beautiful game when they were some two decades ago, they know each other’s moves.

They could probably do it blindfolded.

“It helps us because normally with new teammates, it takes a while to build that chemistry,” Taylor said. “We just have that instant connection. We don’t even have to talk. I know what run she’s going to make. She knows where I’m going to play the ball.”

Maya added: “It’s always so nice having a teammate that knows the type of runs you make. I know the type of ball that she likes to play. So, it makes for good chemistry on the field.”

And sometimes for some beautiful goals.

The 24-year-olds scored one for Kendall High School, a Section V Class C power, years ago.

“She had taken a free kick from almost half field,” Maya said. “She sent it into the 18 for me and I had a backwards header into the goal. We were behind and we tied up the game.”

To be successful in any sport, it takes talent and years and years of practice.

The Rutlands started playing soccer when their parents signed them up around three- or four-years-old, the sisters remembered. They climbed the traditional ladder from recreation teams to travel sides and eventually high school. When they were high school sophomores, the twins wanted to face greater challenges. So they joined the Rochester Junior Rhinos, necessitating about a 30-mile trip into the city southeast of Kendall.

“We had a really good coach there and he inspired us to just keep playing and playing in college,” Taylor said. “It just really motivated us.”

Their passion for the game grew, watching games on TV, the U.S. women’s national team in the Olympics and World Cup and attending the games the Western New York Flash. That team over the years had a bevy of international stars, including several Americans players such as Rochester, N.Y. native Abb Wambach, Carli Lloyd, Alex Morgan and Samantha Mewis), Canadian legend Christine Sinclair and Australian great Sam Kerr, and Brazilian icon Marta, among others.

“Our grandpa took us there. Our mom and us would go watch a lot of their games,” Taylor said. “That just inspired us to keep going. Seeing women play at a higher level, it just really motivated us to be like them.”

Needless to say, their passion and love for the game grew on other levels as well.

“It brings a lot of different people together,” Maya said. “You get to meet a lot of people that you maybe wouldn’t meet if you were just not playing soccer. It’s a good way to get exercise.”

The sisters didn’t just focus on one sport. When they weren’t playing soccer, the Rutlands ran track for the high school team, mainly sprint races.

Taylor set four individual school records in track for the 400- and 200-meters runs, high jump and shot put. And she qualified for the New York State high school track and field championships three times.

Maya set five school records in the 100 and 800.

They also were members of the 4 x 400 relay team that was ranked the ninth fastest in the nation at the 2012 National Junior Olympics, and were on the 4×100 relay, 4×400 relay and 4×800 relay teams that set Kendall H.S. records.

Sometimes they ran against each other in the same race, such as the 100 meters.

“It just depended on the day; sometimes she was faster than me some days,” Taylor said. “I was faster than her. So, it’s pretty even.”

Running track helped build sprint speed for soccer.

“Part of the training for sprinters is weight training and also different exercises to work on your fast twitch muscles,” Maya said. “It helps to build speed and it helps to get your legs moving faster. In soccer, you’re able to move your legs faster in order to do more skills with the ball and have better control over the ball and increase your speed on the field.”

It should come as no surprise that the twins were three-sport athletes. They also played basketball in the winter and had their moments there as well. For example, Taylor sank a three-point shot with a minute remaining to lift Kendall to a 28-27 victory over Lyndonville in a Genesee Region game on Dec. 11, 2015. She finished with five points in that game, Maya with four.

Having a training partner year-around certainly didn’t hurt.

“It’s always nice and especially with training like when we’re in the offseason, you always have somebody to train with and always have somebody to push you and motivate you to do better on a daily basis,” Taylor said.

They eventually attended Roberts Wesleyan University and played four years on the soccer team, helping

the side to an East Coast Conference semifinalist finish in 2016, a top 10 national ranking from the National Christian College Athletic Association that year, a big win over a top 10 ranked team Mercy College in 2018 and a victory over a reigning NCAA national championship team at the University Bridgeport. The Redhawks reached the NCCAA Final Four in 2019.

Maya and Taylor graduated with Magna Cum Laude honors in May 2020, Maya with a degree in history and Taylor with one in homeland security and applied intelligence.

After the COVID-19 pandemic shut down most sports, an opportunity opened up for the sisters to play for Galway WFC in Ireland in January 2022.

“It was definitely an interesting experience,” Taylor said. “At first it was a big adjustment just because the style of play is different over there. The culture is different. It took maybe a week or two to adjust and especially with the time difference, but overall, it was a great experience. The game over there is very tactical, so I think it helped us develop the game on more of a tactical level. It helped to sharpen our soccer IQ as being over there.

“We’ve always wanted to play at the highest level we could possibly play.”

“It was also pretty cool,” Maya added. “We played against teams that played in the Champions League for the women’s side.”

As for Galway, a city with a population of 84,000 and located on the west coast of Ireland, it was a classroom in itself for the Rutlands.

“It’s a mix between that modern culture and also very traditional,” Taylor said. “There’s much culture there.”

Given her college degree, Maya certainly felt at home.

“I’m big into history, so that was nice going over there and being able to see the more traditional side,” she said.

If there is a sibling rivalry, you would never know it, except for when a pair of Spanish giants clash in La Liga or one of the big cup competitions.

“We get along pretty well,” Maya said. “There was still always a little bickering, little rivalry there.”

That’s because Maya is a big Barcelona fan, while Taylor roots for Real Madrid.

Go figure on two sisters who are so close.

“Growing up, I was a huge Neymar fan,” Maya said. “I liked watching Barcelona when they had the trio of Neymar, Messi and Suarez. that was fun to watch. It’s funny because Taylor was a Real Madrid fan. So during the El Classico, it was always interesting to see who was going to win.”

Whoever won, that sister got bragging rights until the next time those two titans met.

Taylor said that her “personal hero” was Isco. “I liked the way he would move the ball around in the midfield, especially since I’m a midfielder,” she said. “That really inspired me and made me want to play like him.”

They returned home and an opportunity to play just a bit closer to home with Flower City 1872 was born. The team played as the Rochester Lady Lancers through 2021, until Flower City Union acquired the United Women’s Soccer rights to the squad.

Flower City Union head coach Jordan Sullivan, who played at Roberts Wesleyan, told the Rutlands about the women’s team and the opportunity was too good to resist.

The women’s side lost its first two matches, most recently dropping a 6-1 home defeat to FC Buffalo last Saturday. Taylor Rutland had the honor of scoring the first Flower City 1872 goal in history, firing a 35-yard shot into the net in the 14th minute.

“At first we did struggle because of numbers and girls being away at college, but more people are filtering in,” Maya said. “We’re improving and I feel like was a new team. We do have a lot of young players. It’s to be expected that we have more growing to do and things to work out.”

Taylor agreed.

“It was a learning curve at first, but I think the team is slowly starting to gel together,” she said. “Like with every new team, there’s going to be hiccups along the way and you’re not going to always start off the greatest, but I think we’re starting to really come together, and the team is gelling better together. I think you could see stronger performances from us in the future.”

Flower City 1872(0-2) plays at FC Buffalo on Friday night.

When they’re not training together or playing in games, they have lives off the field.

Taylor is a substitute teacher in the Kendall Central School District.

“I feel like it’s the perfect job for me at the moment because I can pick and choose my hours,” she said. “When I want to get in an extra training session, I can do that and then maybe pick another day to work. It’s been very convenient so far.”

Maya, a history major at Roberts, has gone down a different path.

“I planned on doing teaching, but then I decided to go down the veterinary route after everything happened with COVID and the pause because I had time to think about things,” she said. “Being a veterinary technician was always in the back of my mind in high school. So, I decided to go down that route instead.”

After this season, the world is open for the Rutland twins.

“For me for right now it is to focus on Flower City 1872 and then possibly look to go back overseas and just keep developing and trying to play at the highest level for as long as I can, as long as my body’s going to hold up,” Taylor said.

Given their history, it wouldn’t be surprising if Maya and Taylor Rutland teamed up to play for another team someday.

 

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.